Brush



April 3, 1928.

P. W. STONE BRUSH Filed Oct. 21. 1924 Fig.4. 1d

Fig: 5.

' further for cleaning Patented Apr. 3, 1928.

TES

PATENT OFFICE.

PHILIP W. STONE, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

BRUSH.

Application filed October 21, 1924. Serial NO. 745,0Q5f

This invention relates to tooth brushes and the object'is to provide a tooth brush which is of improved it for economical manufacture,

more sat1sfactory characteristics ing durability and construction adapting and present.-

convenience than previous constructions have possessed.

Fig. 1 of the accompanying drawings shows a side elevation of the improved brush.

Fig. 2 is a top plan showing,

in dotted lines, the brush extended.

Fig.. 3 is a central longitudinal section showing the extended position in full lines. Fig. 4 is a transverse section through the brush on line in Fig. 3.

H looking toward the left Fig. 5 is a transverse section through the brush on line 55of Fig. 3.

Fig. 6 is an end view looking right in Figs. 1,

toward the 2 and 3, the different characteristics of the tufts of bristles being indicated by the light and 4:, 5 and 6.

My improved closed a brush of the usual appearance in which all portions pate in all of the heavy lines in Figs.

construction presents when are adapted to particiordinary uses of a tooth brush. When the brush is opened it presents a small section separated from the main section, bu

with and with the handle,

t infiexibly connected thereand adapted for the special duties of cleaning the inner surfaces of all natural teeth and particularly of front teeth, and also for cleaning the inner and under surfaces of bridge work, and

all surfaces of artificial teeth, commonly called false teeth. The

chief problem in a brush of this type is to provide a construction which, while being neat and attractive in appearance, 1s rugged enough to with economical in manufacturing cost.

ficult has this p stand extended use and is So difroven 1n practice that commercial tooth brushes adapted for cleaning both natural and artificial teeth are almost exclusively formed with separate complete brush elements at opposite ends of the handle. An important consists in the feature of my invention constructional features by which a brush adapted for ordinary use as a whole is made to comprise a separable unit connected infiexibly and firmly therewith so that in its opened condition said unit is quite as well adapted for its special purposes as those carried by member 5 and constitute together a full-sized brush. This member comprises a head of somewhat greater'thickness and width than the handle member 5 and channeled to receive the end of member 5 as shown in Fig. 3. v The member 10 is slotted as at 8 to receive a which, in cooperation with the channeled form of member 10, holds the members 5 and 10 in assembled relation and permits member 10 to slide frictionally upon memher 5 to adapt the brush for the double duty above suggested. The slot is widened midway of its length to permit separation of members 5 and 10, there-being resilience enough in the said members to enable member 10 to be raised and thenmoved endwise over the head of stud 15. assembling and permits the brush to be taken apart for cleaning the otherwise inaccessible inner faces of member 10. The screw stud 15 is shouldered, as shown in Fig. 5, to set down upon member 5 and is formed with a straight neck 16 and a tapered head. This formation of the screw 15 and a cooperating beveled formation of the walls of the slot provides for holding the two members frictionally in sliding relation. The area of frictional engagement between the stud and slot is greatest at the extreme closed and openpositionsof the brush. In these positions the head of the stud is wedged over the beveled wall of the slot and is caused to bind thereon, with the result that the brush is retained in its closed and open positions against loose movement while being capable of shifting readily under endwise pressure from closed to open position and vice versa. The brush presents smooth exterior surfaces devoid of angles or corners to contact with the mouth in its use.

From the standpoint of practicability it is important that all of the three parts of the brush, including the stud 15, can be made of such non-corrodible material as is usually employed in the manufacture of tooth brushes, as, for example, pyroxylin, no metal being necessarily in any portion of the brush.

screw stud 15,

This facilitates I prefer to employ a particular selection and arrangement of bristles in my brush, namely, soft and relatively short bristles in the parts of the brush likely to contact with the gums, and longer and stifier bristles for scrubbing the teeth. To this end the unit 10 is advantageously composed of one or more tufts of soft bristles 30 at its extremity and has soft-bristles at its lateral sides and one or more rows of stiff tufts 34 in the middle. Moreover, I prefer to shape the tufts in the manner illustrated in Figs' 4, 5 and 6 with the stiff tufts longer'than the soft ones and the whole trimmed to present on either side continuous slopes from the stiff tufts down across the soft tufts. Such an arrangement provides a narrow surface of stiff bristles for searching out crevices between teeth in up and down brushing and soft bristles which will clean the teeth adequately adjacent to the gums while gently massaging the gums. The illustrated construction and arrangement is particularly advantageous in the unit 10 in which the stiff bristles are required to reach under and search out the recesses on the inner surfaces of bridge work and do rather intensive work, while it is important to guard the gums from such abrasion as would deter the user from doing a thorough cleaning job on the bridge work.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. A tooth brush comprising a handle member, a head carried by said handle, tufts of bristles set in said head, a relatively short member in which are set a smaller number of tufts to supplement those carried by the handle member. and constitute together a full length tooth brush, the short member being of greater thickness and width than the bristle carrying portion of the handle member and being channeled to receive and snugly embrace the head.

2. A tooth brush comprising a main brush member and an auxiliary brush member adapted to slide relatively thereto to present the auxiliary member in long1tud1- nally spaced relation to the main member for separate use, the auxiliary brush member of the heads and prorate use, said stud and slot being formed to permit disassembling cleaning. a

A tooth brush comprising a main brush head and an auxiliary brush head having a channeled back slidably overlying and embracing the back of the main head and provided with a slot wider in the middle than at the ends, and a headed stud projecting from the main head through said slot and adapted to hold said head in extended or in closed position and to permit the brush to be disassembled for cleaning when the widened portion of the slot is brought opposite the head of the stud.

5. A tooth brush comprisingamain brush head, an auxiliary brush head having a channeled back slidably overlying and embracing the back of the main head, and a headed stud the lower face of which is of the brush for beveled and which is extended from the main head through an oblong slot in the auxiliary head, the walls of the slot being to embrace the same,

a slot formed in the other them to slide one on the 7 beveled to engage frictionally with the beveled face of the stud and retain the heads 7 in adjusted relation at either end of the slot. In testimony whereof I have signed my name to thi specification.

PHILIP W. STONE. 

